Tony Krantz Teams With Entertainment One For Drama Series Set In World War II France

EXCLUSIVE: After expanding into directing, producer Tony Krantz is now making a foray into writing. Krantz and his Flame Ventures have partnered with Entertainment One for Saboteurs, an ambitious international drama series about the underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II. In his first-ever writing effort, Krantz penned the pilot script on spec. Given the project’s scope and setting, he sent it to eOne, which specializes in international co-productions. Not to sway them, he didn’t disclose he was the writer until he got a call a couple of days later that eOne was buying the project. (Of course, Krantz has writing in his DNA — his mother is popular novelist Judith Krantz.)

Saboteurs is a fictional story about the first resistance cell in Nazi-occupied Paris. It is set in the early months of WWII, before the U.S. got involved following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The cell consists of regular people with no training or experience who decide to fight back. Saboteurs is an action thriller chronicling their adventures as resistance fighters with a mix of Nazis, traitors, regular people and Americans. In addition to writing, Krantz will direct and executive produce. eOne is already eying U.S. cable networks for Saboteurs and is expected to meet with key international buyers at the upcoming MIPTV before officially launching the project at MIPCOM in the fall.

Former Imagine TV topper Krantz, repped by CAA, left TV producing six years ago to focus on feature directing, helming three films. He recently re-entered TV and is executive producing the NBC drama series Dracula, currently filming in Budapest.